Yeah, that's pretty much why I liked it. You get to understand more about the world of Dead Space and what actually happened on the ship, really good stuff. Annoyingly when I first got to the ship I clicked RS to see where to go and it kept taking me back outside, it was resetting my objective back to the main mission.

Still, Hardcore Mode does sound insanely tough. But it may be ok if you can do it on NG+. But still, 1 life? *Gulp*